Tennessee House of Representatives passes important legislation

Recently, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed legislation to aid in the collection of past due child support payments from parents who are in prison.

Sponsored by State Representative Dawn White (R-Murfreesboro), this legislation will go a long way in helping one parent collect payment from another who has been incarcerated.

Known as House Bill 993, this legislation will allow for as much as 50 percent of a person’s prison account to be used to pay child support. Money can be taken from accounts containing funds received for work performed in prison, as well as commissary accounts.

White added the following:

“Regardless of incarceration, a parent should not be allowed to neglect his or her responsibility to a child, and this legislation is one way to help to ensure that a parent’s obligation is fulfilled. If an inmate earns money while incarcerated, for example, some portion of those funds should be used to satisfy that inmate’s outstanding child support obligations.”

When a person earns money from a traditional job, the funds are used to meet child support obligations. For this reason, White believes that the same should hold true when a person is incarcerated.

In the past, many Tennessee residents have missed out on child support payments because their child’s other parent was incarcerated. Thanks to House Bill 993 and the work of State Representative Dawn White, this may not be the case in the near future.